The Drawa () is a river and popular aquatic trail in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, 192 km long. The surface of its catchment area amounts to 3291 km². The Drawa begins its course at Krzywe Lake and ends it in Noteć below Krzyż Wielkopolski. The Drawa is a right-bank tributary of Noteć, the second regarding size. Its average gradient is 0,61% and its flow rate 19 m³/s. It is the longest

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in Pojezierze Drawskie.

Geography

The Drawa flows across regions including Pojezierze Drawskie, Równina Drawska and partly near Pojezierze Wałeckie and Kotlina Gorzowska. The source of the Drawa is in nature reserve Dolina Pięciu Jezior. Then, the river flows across Drawski Landscape Park,

Drawieński National Park Drawa National Park ( pl, Drawieński Park Narodowy) is located in north-western Poland, on the border of Greater Poland, Lubusz and West Pomeranian Voivodeships. The park is a part of the huge Drawsko Forest (Puszcza Drawska), which lies on the ...

and Drawski forest. The section from Czaplinek to Noteć is called the

Karol Wojtyła Silver Route Karol may refer to: Places * Karol, Gujarat, a village on Saurashtra peninsula in Gujarat, west India * Karol State, a former Rajput petty princely state with seat in the above town Film/TV *'' Karol: A Man Who Became Pope'', a 2005 miniseries ...

Tributaries

The biggest tributaries of the Drawa are the

Kokna Kokni, Kokna, Kukna is an Indian Adivasi tribal community found in Sahyadri-Satpura Ranges of Maharashtra (mostly residing in Nandurbar and Dhule districts - Sakri, Navapur talukas) and in Gujarat (mostly residing in Ahwa- Dang, Navsari and Val ...

, Korytnica, Mierzęcka Struga, Płociczna, Pokrętna, Słopica,

Wąsowa Wąsowa is a river of Poland. It flows out of the lake Wąsosze and is a left tributary of the River Drawa in Złocieniec Złocieniec (; formerly german: Falkenburg) is a town in northwestern Poland. Located in West Pomeranian Voivodeship's Dr ...

. The main streams of the river are the Bagnica, Drawsko, Drawka, Głęboka, Miedzniki, Moczel, Pełknica, Radówka,

Sitna The Sitna is a right tributary of the river Jijia in Romania. It discharges into the Jijia in Hlipiceni.Studzienica, Sucha, Szczuczna, Wilżnica. One canal, Prostynia, flows into the Drawa.

Lakes

The Drawa flows through many lakes. In the upper region of the river there are Górne, Krąg, Długie, Głębokie, . Further down the river, the lakes Prosino, Żerdno,

Drawsko Lake Drawsko (german: Dratzigsee) is a lake located nearby the town of Czaplinek in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It is 1,956 hectares large, 12,6 km long and 3.9 km wide. Maximum depth is 79.7 m, making it the second deepest lake ...

, Rzepowskie, Lubie, Krosino, Wielkie and Małe Dębno can be found.

Towns

* Czaplinek *

Złocieniec Złocieniec (; formerly german: Falkenburg) is a town in northwestern Poland. Located in West Pomeranian Voivodeship's Drawsko County since 1999, it was previously a part of Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998). The population of Złocieniec is a ...

Drawsko Pomorskie Drawsko Pomorskie (until 1948 pl, Drawsko; formerly german: Dramburg) is a town in Drawsko County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland, the administrative seat of Drawsko County and the urban-rural commune of Gmina Drawsko Po ...

* Prostynia * Drawno *

Stare Osieczno Stare Osieczno is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dobiegniew, within Strzelce-Drezdenko County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It lies approximately east of Dobiegniew, north-east of Strzelce Krajeńskie, and north-ea ...

* Przedborowo * Krzyż Wielkopolski

Flora and fauna

The river contains over thirty species of fish, including the

Rutilus ''Rutilus'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae found in Eurasia. This genus is a widely distributed lineage of cyprinids and ranges from West Europe to East Siberia. Species In FishBase (2022), nine species are included in the genus: * ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

gudgeon A gudgeon is a socket-like, cylindrical (i.e., ''female'') fitting attached to one component to enable a pivoting or hinging connection to a second component. The second component carries a pintle fitting, the male counterpart to the gudgeon, ...

, European chub,

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

grayling Grayling or Greyling may refer to: Animals Fish * Grayling, generically, any fish of the genus ''Thymallus'' in the family Salmonidae ** European grayling (''Thymallus thymallus''), the European species of the genus ''Thymallus'' ** Arctic grayli ...

, barbel, bream,

spirlin ''Alburnoides bipunctatus'', known vernacularly as the schneider, spirlin, bleak, riffle minnow, and others, is a species of small (9-cm average length) freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerb ...

and

silver bream Silver bream is the common name of several species of fish: * '' Blicca bjoerkna'' (white bream), freshwater species of cyprinids from Europe and Western Asia * ''Acanthopagrus australis'' (surf bream), marine and freshwater species of sea bream fro ...

. The river is also a place of living of the rare specimens –

sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal ...

, common minnow, european bullhead and vimba vimba. The Drawa also hosts buzzards,

red algae Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta also comprises one of the largest phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 currently recognized species with taxonomic revisions ongoing. The majority ...

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s, spargania and

potamogeton ''Potamogeton'' is a genus of aquatic, mostly freshwater, plants of the family Potamogetonaceae. Most are known by the common name pondweed, although many unrelated plants may be called pondweed, such as Canadian pondweed (''Elodea canadensis'' ...

History

From the 14th century, the river has been used as a navigational route. Since 1700, the Drawa has been used for drifting honey from Drawsko to

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Navigation of the river continued until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1974, on the river route was founded a nature reserve Drawa and in 1990

Attractions

The Drawa flows near various historical buildings. One of them is Drahimski Castle, which was turned into the museum. The castle was built in 1360 by the Order of Saint John. There are also interesting bunkers near camping in Kotlina. On Drawa's route Wedel's Castle, from the 14th century, can also be found. On one of the banks, Wydrzy Głaz can be found ( Moczele"Wydrzy Głaz"
). On the section of the river from Lubie to Prostynia, rafting and canoeing are forbidden because the Drawski Training Ground is located in that area.

References

{{reflist * http://www.mrowka.pl/drawa.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20120123053451/http://www.kajaki-sikory.pl/pl/spywy/rzekadrawa * http://www.dpn.pl/drawa * Galiński Z., ''Przewodnik dla kajakarzy. Drawa'', Pascal, 2003.